Collating apparatus



March 3, 1959 MESTRE 2,876,008 v coLLATING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 9,` 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 H15 ATTORNEY March 3, 1959u l.. MESTRE 2,876,008

COLLATING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 9. 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR H S ATTORNEY March 3, 1959 L.. MESTRE 2,876,008

COLLATING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 9. 1954 4 sheets-sheet s Flea. 74,

INVENTOR LUIS MESTRE A BY H l S ATTORNEY March 3, 1959y MESTRE COLLATING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Nov; 9, 1954 M me NM m wm m edi United States Patent C) 2,876,008 coLLATrNG APPARATUS Luis Mestre, New York, N. Y. Application November 9, 1954, Serial No. 467,786 11 Claims. (Cl. 271-64) This invention relates to sheet collating means and the principal object of the invention is to provide simple and eiective means of the character specified.

. Another object of the invention is to provide sheet collating means occupying a limited amount of iloor space but capable of collating the sheets into a relatively large number of groups, each of which may comprise consecutive different leaves of a book.

vStill another object of the invention is to provide sheet collating means wherein there is an endless series of pockets into which sheets are inserted in succession as the pockets are moved past a supply point.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a sheet collating means wherein there is an endless series of pockets into which sheets are inserted in succession as the pockets are moved past a supply point, and the sheets are jogged longitudinally and transversely to bring them into register.

A further object of the invention is to provide a nov'el and advantageous collating device comprising a rotatable collating dmm divided into radial pockets to receive sheets in a direction parallel to the axis of the drum.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel and advantageous collating device comprising a rotatable collating drum divided into radial pockets to receive sheets in a direction parallel to the axis of the drum, the axis of the drum being inclined so that the sheets are urged b y gravity toward Vthe bottom of the drum.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide arotary collating drum with radial sheet receiving pockets, and operating means to advance the drum pocket by pocket and lock it in corresponding positions to receive sheets therein.

l Other objects, features and advantages will appear upon consideration of the following detailed description and of the drawings in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of one embodiment of the collating means of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a view taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a section taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a section taken along the line 4-4 of Fig, 3;

Fig.. 5 is a fragmentary view taken along the line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a View taken along the line 6-6 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 7 is a perspective View of one of the adjustable bottoms of the pockets of the drum; and

Fig. 8 is a sectional View taken along the line 8-8 of Fig. 4.

Y Referring to the drawings, a rotatable collating drum 10 is mounted upon an inclined shaft 11 fixed in a frame 12 which may be mounted on casters 13. The drum 10 comprises an outer cylinder 14 and an inner cylinder 15 fixed to a circularV base 16 and radial partitions 17 secured at their inner edges to the cylinder 15 and at their outer edges to the cylinder 14 andat their lower edges to said base or bottom 16.

At the upper end of cylinder 15 a spider 18 is secured bearing 19, preferably a ball bearing, secured to said spider. Shaft 11 also passes through a central opening in the circular base 16; the shaft carries a ball bearing 20 for mounting the drum. Said shaft 11 is lixed to frame members 21 and 21a (Fig. 3). The radial partitions 17 divide the space between the outer cylinder 14 and the inner cylinder 15 into a convenient number of pockets 22 here shown as 50 in number,

In operation the collating drum 10 is advanced one step at a time to bring successive pockets 22 to a selected position at which sheets are to be inserted. For this purpose a ratchet wheel 23 is secured to the central portion of circular base 16 and this ratchet wheel is operated by means of a pawl 24 pivoted on a lever 25 mounted to turn about the shaft 11. The pawl 24 is pressed against the ratchet wheel 23 by spring means 24a. Said arm 25 is urged toward its rearmost position by means of a spring 26 attached to the end of said lever 25 and t-o a lixed portion of the frame.

Said drum is held against free movement by means of friction braking devices 27 (Figs. l and 4) as shown in detail in Fig. 8. The bottom of the drum 10 is engaged by frictional members 28 mounted on pins 28a slidable in Xed cylinders 29 and urged toward the cylinder base 16 by means of springs 30 in said cylinders and engaged at their outer ends by discs 31 on the inner ends of screws 32 threaded into the bases 33 -of cylinders 29. Said cylinders 29 may be fixed to a vmember forming part of the main frame.

The pawl carrying lever 25 is operated in a driving direction by a link 34 connected to anupright arm 35 of a bell crank 36 mounted on a pivot 37 on the frame 12. Mounted on said main frame 12 is an auxiliary frame 38 (Figs. 4 and 6) in which is mounted a shaft 39 carrying a cam 40 which engages a follower 4l on the generally horizontal arm 42 of said bell crank 36. Said shaft 39 also carries a cam 43 which engages a follower 43a on a bellcrank lever 44 having an upwardly extending arm 45 which is pivotally connected to a link 46 operating a spring pressed member shown as a detent 47 i (Fig. 5) in the form of a pin. Said detent pin 47 is slidably mounted in a frame member and engages a cooperating means carried by the bottom and engaged by the detent or pin 47. To this end the pin has a reduced end to t into any one of a series of cooperating means shown as holes 48 in the bottom of the drum. As shown in Fig. 4 there is an opening 48 at the bottom of each pocket 22 so that the drum may be held in proper position during the insertion of each sheet. Said detent pin 47 is controlled by means of a bell crank 49 urged to hold the detent 47 in effective position by means of a spring 50 the detent being moved to ineffective or released position out of the hole by link 46 which has a slotted connection with a pin 52 in the upright arm of bell crank 49.

Said shaft 39 is driven by means of a bevel gear 55 thereon (Fig. 6) meshing with a bevel gear 56 on av shaft 57. A pulley 58 on shaft 57 is connected by means of a belt 59 with a pulley 60 on a shaft 61. Shaft 61 has tixed thereon a pulley 62 connected by a belt 63 with a speed regulating pulley 64 on shaft 65 (Fig. 4) of a motor 66. Said motor 66 is mounted on a support 67 pivoted on the frame 12 and adjustable to different positions by means of a screw 68 threaded through said support 67. The lower end of screw 68 is rotatable in a bracket 69 of the frame but the screw is held against longitudinal movement. Said pulley 64 may be any suitable adjustable pulley for changing the effective radius or pitch of the pulley by having belt 63 of V-cross section so that by lowering the motor by means of a head 70 on screw 68 the speed ofoperation will' be decreased and by raising the motor the speed of operat1on will be increased. Sheets to be'collat'ed'may be fed'manually one by one into" successive pockets 22.v as` said pockets successively reach a selected position, for example, as indicated at the; right of Fig. 2. If the drum is used to maximum -capacity for each sheet, fifty sheets of one kind are placed m thefty pockets, fifty sheets of another kind are inserted in the same way and this procedureris followed until the desired number of sheets are collected in each pocket. Obviously a smaller. number of pockets can be used, care being; taken to. start and stop the supply of sheets at theV proper pockets. Y

The sheets 71 may also be supplied by any suitable single sheet feeder of which there are many forms. The feeder used may be similar to that of my prior copending application Ser. No. 385,430, led October 12, 195'3, the means for ejecting a plurality of sheets advanced at one time being omitted. To this end a sprocket wheel 75 fixed on shaft 57 (Fig. 6.) may be connected by means of a sprocket chain 76 with a sprocket wheel 77 rotatably mounted on frame 12. Connectedrto sprocket wheel 77 to rotate therewith is a sprocket wheel 78 which is connected by a sprocket chain 79 to a sprocket wheel' 8.0 on shaft 81 of sheet feeding means, indicated in general by 82 (Fig. 2), which includes means 83 for conveying single sheets 71 to the drum 10 and means (not shown) for picking up single sheets 71 from a stack and feeding them to said conveying means 83.

,The sheet feeder of said copending application includes a feeding platform adapted to hold a stack of several thousand sheets, and means for raising said platform step by step to supply top sheets of the stack in position to be fed to said drum 10. By building up.' said stack with groups of sheets, each of which includes identical sheets corresponding to successive sheets or pages of a book, the same result can be obtained as by loading various feed* compartments with corresponding groups of sheets. An important feature of applicants apparatus is that his machine provides for great economy of floor space.

Said conveying means 83 comprises bands 84 extending around rolls 8SA rotatably mounted inside members mechanism illustrated there are five bands S4 of whichV theedge bands are hidden by bars S8 with openings" holding balls 89 which rest on sheets on the upper reaches of said bands and a plate 90 supporting said upper reaches, thus assuringan effective friction drive. A plate -91 (Fig. l) may be used to bridge theV gap between the bands and the drum.

The bottom 16 of the drum 10 .is reinforced by a circular plate 92 tting in the bottom of the cylinder yand utilized for securing said balll bearing 29k and ratchet wheel 23' to said bottoml 16.

To facilitate removal of stacks of sheets 71 from pockets 22, the upper edges of said partition are pro'- vided with cut-outs 93 (Fig. 3). In order to use sheets 71 of different lengths, the depths of said pockets. 22 may be adjusted. This may be done-by use of false bottoms 94 (Fig. 7) for each pocket 22. Such false bottoms 94 are shaped tov fit across said pockets and as shown are provided with reinforcing flanges 95 extending along their sides and outer ends. Their inner ends have narrow projections 96a adapted to fit in corresponding opening 96 arranged around wall 1S in circles at different heights. The outer Wallrf of the drum 19 is provided with groups of slots 7a adapted to receive threaded pins 97 extending from the outer ends of false.

bottoms 94.

y.To install a false4 bottom 94 in a pocket 22, the false bottom may be inserted in the pocket with its inner end inclined upwardly or downwardly as required, its inner end projection 96a being inserted in an opening 96 of cylinder or cylindrical wall 15. The pin 97 is then placed in the corresponding slot 97a and the outer end of false bottom 94 shifted to the proper position. A nut 98 is then placed on threaded pin 97 and tightened to hold the false bottom in position. Tao-remove a false bottom from the drum, the procedure may be reversed.

Said drum 10 is easily applied to or removed from said inclined shaft 11. To this end the inner ring or race of the ball bearing 20 ts over an intermediate portion of shaft 11` and rests against a shoulder provided by a shaft portion of greater diameter and the innerring or race of ball bearing 19 ts on a reduced outer end of shaft and rests against a shoulder provided by the larger shaft portion over which the inner race of ball bearing 20 fits. The drum 16 is held on shaft 11 by meansfof a ring 100 secured to the outer end of shaft 11 by means of a screwv 10'1 and overlying the inner ball race of ball bearing, 19.

The sheet feeder is operated from the drive for the collating drum and is synchronized therewith. As illustratedin Figure 2, the sheets 71 in the various pockets are agitated and jogged into registration along an edge' parallel to the axis of said drum. Due to the inclination of the shaft 11, theagitation of sheets 71 caused' by 1 rotation of drum 10 will also effect jogging of sheetsin a direction parallel to shaft 11 and into registration along an edge perpendicular to the axis of said shaft. The shapes of cams 40 and 43 and their connections with drum 10 and detent pin 47 are such that detent pin 47 is removed from a hole in bottom 43 justv before pawl 24 acts to. advance the drum and just after actuation of pawl 24, the detent pin is permitted to move against bottom 16 of the drum so that it will move into an opening. 48 as soon as the opening comes into proper position.

As shown in Fig. 2, the pockets 22 between the radial partitions 17 are wider at the outer cylinder 14 than -at the inner cylinder 1S and any sheets 71 in a pocketv at the feed level are positioned against the outer cylinder 14 and provide more available space for additional sheets than if the pack of sheets were nearer to the inner cylinder 15.

For convenience in handling each false bottomV 94 may v be provided with an opening 102.

It should be understood that various changes can be made and certain features used without others, without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is:

l. Sheet collating means comprising a collating drum having a cylindrical outer Wall, and at the drum interior a plurality of radial walls providing radial pockets with openv ends at one end of said drum, means supporting said drum for rotation about a fixed axis, means Vcon-v nected with the drum to continuously rotate the same, and the supporting means having an inclinedaxis 'for jogging the sheets into register at the bottom and at a side of each of said pockets, each pocket havinga false bottom, and means carried by the drum at each pocket and by each false bottom for adjusting the depth of each pocket.

2. Sheet collating means comprising a collating drum having a cylindrical outer wall, and at the drum interior a plurality of radial walls providing radial pockets with open ends at one end of said drum, means for adjusting the depthsY of said pockets comprising a false bottom in each pocket and means for securing each of said false bottoms in a predetermined position in a corresponding pocket including'a projection carried by one end of the false bottom, the drum having a hole in each pocket to receive the projection, a second projection on the otherende of the false bottom, the drum having at leastf' one elongated slot to receive the second projection, and

'radial walls dividing the space means to secure the second projection in the elongated slot.

3. Sheet collating means comprising a collating drum having a round bottom, an outer and an inner cylindrical wall projecting from said bottom and coaxial therewith, between said cylindrical walls into pockets, false bottoms for said pockets, and means for securing said false bottoms in said pockets in predetermined positions including a longitudinal projection at the inner end of each false bottom and at its outer end a longitudinally projecting threaded pin, said inner cylindrical wall being provided with circles of openings one for each pocket at each predetermined level and adapted to receive said projections and to prevent turning thereof, said outer cylinder having series of vertical slots of such length that after a false bottom has been inserted in a longitudinally inclined direction in a pocket and the projection at its inner end inserted into one of said openings in the inner cylindrical wall, the threaded pin at the outer end of said false bottom may be inserted into a corresponding slot and swung to desired position, and a nut screwed .on each threaded pin to secure the false bottom in position.

4. Sheet collating means comprising a collating drum and means for rotating said drum about an inclined axis, said drum comprising a circular bottom, an outer cylindrical wall secured to said bottom, an inner cylindrical wall coaxial with said outer wall, radial partitions secured to said outer and inner walls and providing pockets therebetween, in combination with means including means operatively connected with the drum to rotate the same step by step, a spring-pressed member to detain said drum between step movements of said drum to place one pocket after another in position to receive a sheet for collation with other sheets, cooperating means for each pocket carried by said circular bottom in a position to be engaged by said spring pressed member,

and means for retracting said spring-pressed member to release said drum and then releasing said member to rest on said circular bottom and engage the next cooperating means brought into position for such engagement.

5. Sheet collating means comprising a collating drum with a bottom and open at its top; an inclined stationary shaft having a lower supported portion, a reduced intermediate portion producing a shoulder at its lower end and a reduced tip producing a second shoulder at its lower end; said drum having a circular bottom with a central ball bearing fitting over said intermediate portion, a ball bearing tting over said tip and secured to the drum at its open top; a ring over the reduced tip of said shaft and the corresponding ball bearing; and releasable means connecting said ring to said tip.

6. Sheet collating means comprising a shaft; means supporting said shaft in inclined position; a collating drum mounted to rotate about the axis of said shaft; said drum having a bottom, an outer wall and a plurality of sheetreceiving pockets arranged around the inner wall of the drum and open at the top of the drum; means for actuating said drum step-by-step; detent means for holding said drum in successive positions; and means for operating said actuating means and detent means in timed relation.l

7. Sheet collatingmeans according to claim 6 in combination with friction means engaging said drum to avoidy overrunning of the drum.

8. Sheet collating means according to claim 6 in combination with sheet feeding means to supply sheets to successive pockets of said drum, and a connection from said operating means to said sheet feeding means to synchronize them.

9. Sheet collating means according to claim 6 wherein said operating means comprises speed-regulating means.

l0. Sheet collating means according to claim 6 wherein said means for actuating said drum comprises a pawl-and ratchet device and said detent means comprises a part of the bottom of said drum provided with a recess for each pocket, the recesses being disposed circularly, and a spring-pressed pin mounted in the shaft supporting means in position to enter said recesses.

1l. Sheet collating means according to claim 10 wherein said operating means comprises means for retracting said pin just before the pawl and ratchet device becomes effective and then releases the pin to rest against the bottom of the drum preparatory to entering the next recess brought into register therewith.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,375,226 May Apr. 19, 1921 1,443,698 Avery Jan. 30, 1923 2,288,755 Taggart July 7, 1942 2,449,594 Druliner Sept. 21, 1948 2,496,490 Phillips Feb. 7, 1950 2,496,491 Phillips Feb. 7, 1950 2,589,676 Crissy Mar. 18, 1952 2,661,209 McGalliard Dec. 1, 1953 2,771,029 Carroll Nov. 20, 1956 

